7i96s Questions

Google search led me to this "Driver Boards" section of the forum, I had no idea it existed I was posting related question under General etc, apologies for my past transgressions.

My understanding is that some Mesa boards load their FPGA firmware every time they power up and others are non-volatile.So I guess:
1) If you have the former, you can just provide a different file in the correct location and change the boards functionality?
2) if you have the latter you need to re-flash the FPGA?
3) I'm using a 7196S for my lathe (WIP), so is the 7i96S volatile or non-volatile?
4) I have a quadrature encoding glass scale on my Z-axis connected to isolated inputs 0&1 (TB3-1&2), and this works fine unless I move quickly, apparently the inm's (I'm assuming this means input mux) scan rate can be increased. Not sure where the scan rate is changed, is that a HAL type parameter or do I need to reprogram the FPGA?  And how do I increase the scan rate?
5) If after maximizing the mux scan rate I find it's still too slow for fast moves and I instead connect the scales to the P1 expansion port, do I need to re-flash the FPGA, or is it already configured for quadrature encoder inputs? In total I will need to connect two scales and one MPG. Not counting the spindle encoder connections to TB2. Where do I find documentation on the expansion port and mapping of quadrature inputs to those P1 pins?

your help is much appreciated.

 

If in question about hardware pin, parameter names, type this
at a terminal when LinuxCNC is running:

halcmd show all hm2

or to save all the names in a file (as a copy_paste source) :

halcmd show all hm2 > hm2names.txt

5:

For faster normal encoders, here is firmware that adds 6 encoders on P1:

 




 

halcmd show all hm2 > hm2names.txt does not yield very much, see attached.
  Okay,

---

I have mesaflash v3.4.9
My 7i96s is jumpered and presently setup at 10.10.10.10

Should I change the jumpers to 192.168.1.121 for the upgrade, or just change the upgrade commands as follows?

mesaflash --device 7I96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --write 7i96s_p1encd.bin

Than just power cycle the board.



 

Looks like halcmd was run without running LinuxCNC

mesaflash --device 7I96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --write 7i96s_p1encd.bin

should work

mesaflash --device 7I96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --write 7i96s_p1encd.bin --reload

is probably better

PCW wrote:

Looks like halcmd was run without running LinuxCNC

mesaflash --device 7I96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --write 7i96s_p1encd.bin

should work

mesaflash --device 7I96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --write 7i96s_p1encd.bin --reload

is probably better

 

Seemed to upgrade, but I don't see additional encoders.
Before I did the upgrade (Linux running) I captured all the hm2 stuff see: hm2names.txt
Then LinuxCNC closed,  I did the upgrade and followed up with reload, that seemed to work see upgradetxt.txt
Then captured hm2 names again see:  up_hm2names.txt
No apparent changes, and when I look in HalShow I only see encoder0, I was expecting to see a few more.

Not sure what I did wrong, unless I was supposed to do the write and reload in one pass instead of two?
     

Its likely you have only 1 encoder enabled in your hal file.

To check the pinout (and number of encoders):

mesaflash --device 7i96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --readhmid

PCW wrote:

Its likely you have only 1 encoder enabled in your hal file.

To check the pinout (and number of encoders):

mesaflash --device 7i96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --readhmid
 

Thank you getting somewhere......

IO Connections for P1 -> 7I96_2
Pin#                  I/O   Pri. func    Sec. func        Chan     Sec. Pin func   Sec. Pin Dir
P1-01/DB25-01          34   IOPort       QCount           1        Quad-A          (In)
P1-02/DB25-14          35   IOPort       QCount           1        Quad-B          (In)
P1-03/DB25-02          36   IOPort       QCount           1        Quad-IDX        (In)
etc......

This is how I previously tested the basic DRO concept with A&B driving isolated inputs 0&1:
loadrt conv_s32_float count=1
addf conv-s32-float.0 servo-thread

loadrt scale count=2
addf scale.0 servo-thread
setp scale.0.offset 0.0
# 0.02mm = 0.0007874"
setp scale.0.gain 0.0007874

net ydro-in-i hm2_7i96s.0.inm.00.enc0-count => conv-s32-float.0.in
net ydro-in-f conv-s32-float.0.out => scale.0.in
net ydro <= scale.0.out

So now in my HAL file what should I replace hm2_7i96s.0.inm.00.enc0-count  with when using the P1-01 & P1-02 pins instead of the slow but isolated TB3:1&2 pins?


Much appreciated
 

The first P1 encoder is  encoder 1 so the position would be:

hm2_7i96s.0.encoder.01.position

and the most important parameter for that encoder would be:

hm2_7i96s.0.encoder.01.scale


 

PCW wrote:

The first P1 encoder is  encoder 1 so the position would be:

hm2_7i96s.0.encoder.01.position

and the most important parameter for that encoder would be:

hm2_7i96s.0.encoder.01.scale

 

After your warning (thanks) I was going to solder up a little proto-board with some protection diodes for the negative rail. Then decided to just do a quick and dirty actual PCB. I will obviously be careful when connecting, and to your point chassis ground is not zero volts. I inserted a 100r series resistor and TVS, please see attached and let me know if you think this is adequate?

I'm ready to press the send button for a free PCB, but I can tweak if you have any suggestions.
Re: hm2_7i96s.0.encoder.01.scale, can I assume that's a float value? Is there documentation available for the finer details of the 7i96s_p1encd.bin?